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Since 06/09/00
Of course, almost all of us would, at least under the right circumstances. Which leads the viewer to roll his or her eyes in disbelief as our protagonist makes the 'wrong' choices again and again, much to the displeasure of his morally pure friends and family.
The real problem with Body and Soul is the characters. They can be divided too neatly into good and bad, with only our protagonist Charlie Davis (John Garfield) in the ambiguous center.
The "good" include Charlie's mother (Anne Revere), his eternal fiancee (Lilli Palmer), his best pal Shorty (Joseph Pevney), and washed-up ex-champ Ben (Canada Lee). All of whom would rather see Charlie live in obscurity and poverty rather than sell his soul to the "bad" characters.
These include the gangster Roberts (Lloyd Gough), his lower-tier henchman Quinn (an already-beefy William Conrad), and Quinn's fickle former girlfriend Alice (Hazel Brooks), a golddigger whose sights are set on the still naive Charlie. The supporting characters are all simplistically pegged, and it is up to Garfield to provide the substance.
But unlike Champion, which allowed Kirk Douglas' character to be a grasping bastard, Body and Soul is much too concerned about keeping Charlie Davis likable. His finacee pines away for years while waiting for Charlie to return to his snowflake-pure ways, even living with his mother, which only makes sense if one already knows how the story will turn out.
What Body and Soul does have is credible boxing scenes. In their attempt to install drama, movies usually go too far with ring violence. You've seen it before: one fighter is hanging by a thread, getting beat on mercilessly, before he suddenly launches an amazing comeback. You see this in Rocky, and in Body and Soul to a lesser degree. The only great boxing film that avoids such cliches is Raging Bull, which instead uses slow-motion and other effects to install drama.
The career of John Garfield ended abruptly on May 21, 1952, when he died of a heart attack at the age of 39. He was having difficulty finding work due to the blacklist, as his leftist sympathies did not suit the McCarthy era. Garfield's other heralded film roles were in The Postman Always Rings Twice and Force of Evil, film 'classics' that like Body and Soul were hampered by code-enforced morality. His best film was Gentleman's Agreement, a Gregory Peck vehicle that also had Anne Revere in a supporting role.
Body and Soul picked up an Oscar for Best Film Editing. Francis D. Lyon and Robert Parrish effectively capsulize his training and fights. Also nominated were Garfield as Best Actor, and Abraham Polonsky for Best Original Screenplay.